


Centuries

by PikaB119



Series: Nerve Damage [1]
Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Tamers
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Experiment, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Impmon is a loveable asshole, Still haven't figured out how to tag~, Takato is a nervous wreck and it shows, Takato's bad luck strikes again...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-11-01 17:23:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17871566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PikaB119/pseuds/PikaB119
Summary: Somewhere in the world, a little boy with dreams meets a little devil with ambitions…Or instead of creating Guillmon, Takato Matsuda winds up partnered with the forever abrasive Impmon. Somehow, this changes very little...





	Centuries

**Author's Note:**

> As a forewarning, characters may or may not be OOC to varying degrees in this. Please keep that in mind as you read. The title is from Fall Out Boys "Centuries"

* * *

**_Centuries_ **

* * *

If Takato stands still enough, maybe it won’t see him.

 

It’s a pipe dream of course. He knows it is, but there’s not much else he can do when he’s basically pinned between a rock and a hard place.

 

As if Takato needed the reminder of how screwed he is, the flaming lizard that had  _ phased  _ into existence through the floor takes one sniff at the air and then turns to glare at him.

 

_ “Human…”  _ The thing hisses, spitting fire and smoke as it plods towards him. Takato wants to scream --would like it even better if he could  _ run _ , but his legs are jello with fear and there’s no way he’d make it the however many steps there are between him and maybe-safety.

 

“P-Please… Please…” The creature pauses. Tilting its head, like its absolutely baffled at Takato’s pleas for mercy.  _ (Well I’m sorry if I don’t want to  _ **_die_ ** _.)  _ He’s only ten, he’s still a child. He’s got every right to be scared.

 

_ I never told my mom goodbye… _

 

What  _ was _ the last thing Takato had said to her? It probably wasn’t anything good. --No, it definitely wasn’t. Takato had been angry when he’d left earlier that afternoon. Feeling badgered and overwhelmed.

 

He’d just wanted some fresh air; quiet time without the possibility of his parents interrupting.

 

His mother had tried to stop him, to talk and…

 

_ “Just leave me alone!!” _

 

_ “Takato-!” _

 

**_“Fire Breath!”_ **

 

He wasn’t even gonna be able to apologize…

 

“I’m so sorry, Mom…”

 

**“--BADA BOOM!!”**

* * *

“Y’know… I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as dumb or lucky… --or as dumb  _ and  _ lucky as you…”

 

If that’s supposed to be a compliment, it’s the most the backwards one Takato has ever heard. --Not that he’s about to complain. He’s still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he’s alive, and not simply a burnt smear across the parking garage floor.

 

Staring at the soot stain scarred into the concrete, he realizes for the fifth time in as many minutes that he very nearly  _ was _ .

 

“Why did you save me?” He hears himself ask.

 

The creature snorts, “I don’t know… maybe I can’t stand the sight of some big bad digimon picking on some defenceless brat. Maybe I just didn’t like the… how do you humans say it…?” Takato has to shrug when it points at him. He’s too shaken up to remember his own name, much less whatever the… the  _ digimon  _ is talking about.

 

(Later, in the dead of the night, Takato is going to wake up from nightmares and realize what this means.)

 

“--Ah, right! The cut of his jib...”

 

( _ Years from now, Takato will look back and wonder if maybe he would’ve done something,  _ **_anything_ ** _ differently.) _

 

“--Maybe I just wanted the pleasure of killing you myself.”

 

_ (He’ll remember this day, and everything that followed after that. And decide that no, nothing is worth the price.) _

 

_ “What?!” _

 

The digimon laughs, nastily amused at the expense of Takato’s already fragile peace of mind. He has a half-a-mind to try to squish him. But before the thought can even fully form, he’s sitting on Takato’s shoulder, patting his head in a way that doesn’t feel nearly as patronizing as it probably looks.

 

“That’s better!” He says. And Takato has to wonder if maybe the digimon hadn’t been trying to cheer him up, in his own unpleasant way. “The name’s Impmon. What about you?”

 

“T-Takato M-Matsuda…”

 

“T-Takato M-Matsuda?”

 

“N- _ No! _ Takato, Takato!”

 

“Well, Takato-Takato…”

 

“That’s not what I said-!”

 

“Listen,” Impmon leaps from his shoulder. And either he weighs so little a  _ feather  _ wouldn’t feel him landing on it, or he’s just  _ that  _ good. “It was nice meeting you and all. But I gotta scram.”

 

“Ah, wait, will I ever see you again?!” Takato worries. About a lot of things if he’s completely honest with himself. And maybe he’s still shaken from earlier. Maybe he’ll come to his senses later on tonight or tomorrow and realize just how bad an idea what he’s doing  _ is _ .

 

But Impmon  _ saved  _ Takato, when as far as he can tell, the other didn’t  _ have  _ to.

 

“My parents own a bakery... and I think I could sneak you some…” Right now, Takato  _ wants  _ to see Impmon again. He doesn’t want this to be goodbye just yet…

 

_ (He’ll wonder later, much later, if it wasn’t Fate simply pulling him along on strings…) _

 

“Eh, who knows… Maybe I’ll find myself in the neighborhood…” And just like that, as blithely as he’d come along, Impmon is gone.

 

It’s not a promise, Takato thinks, but it might be just as good as one.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't get me wrong, I love Guillmon and Takatomon's relationship in Digimon Tamers (the animation was also fantastic despite how old it actually is). But I read recently that in the season's early planning stages, supposedly WiZ wanted Impmon to be Takato's partner digimon, but Chiaki J. Konaka (creator of Digimon Tamers) wanted a more innocent digimon.
> 
> Mind you I read this on the wiki, so I've no idea how true that actually is. But it got me thinking; what if Takato was partnered with Impmon instead?
> 
> Takato always struck me as a sincere, but generally nervous child. Impmon's a bully for most of the show, and downright evil during a good chunk of the middle. But he has his moments early on when he's not tripping over his own issues and past trauma. And y'know, acting and lashing out at everything vaguely human-shaped/related that breathes.
> 
> I don't know, maybe I'm projecting a little or a lot, but I was fascinated by the idea of Impmon, who's ego has an ego and a golden heart buried somewhere underneath it all, being the partner of someone as passive but genuinely determined and caring as Takato.
> 
> I've also been binge watching various digimon series over the least couple of weeks. So there's that.


End file.
